The federal government said arrangement has been concluded to install 10 integrated rice mills across the country in Kogi, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, Benue, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Ogun, and Anambra.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, disclosed this at the agreement signing ceremony between the ministry and Flourtech Engineer PVT of India and Alvan Blanch, recently in Abuja.
Adesina stated that the agreement with Flourtech Engineer PVT, India, was meant to engineer, procure and construct 10 rice processing plants under EPC contract, while that of Alvan Blanch was intended to establish 25 Grain Aggregation Centres (GACs).
The minister said the rice mills would be owned and managed by the private sector, adding that several states have provided land for the establishment of the proposed rice mills.
“The capacity of each of the rice mills is 36,000 tonnes per annum, with the processing capacity of the ten integrated rice mills totaling 360,000 tonnes” Adesina said.
On the Grain Aggregation Centres (GACs), the minister stated that it has a capacity of 40,500 bags, each, and costs of N38 million, including equipment and building in paddy production across 16 states of the federation.
The GACs are expected to aggregate paddy in standardised measurement, have good quality and will be located in Kogi, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Katsina and Enugu states.
The Bank of Industry (BoI) will handle the disbursement and recovery of funds, based on the MoU signed between the ministry and BoI on September 10, 2014.
